rollercoaster project Revenge (CD, £11.95)

label: Absolutely Kosher

The Rollercoaster Project is one Johnny White from Sheffield. Years of computer tinkering and tampering led to the first proper Rollercoaster Project material, ambient and distorted with the odd remix, at around age 17. He released the first album, Hatefield, at 21. A spot of bad luck led to White moving into a shed in the garden of an old teacher of his. It is there where he recorded Christmas Eve, the opening song on Revenge, the band's first widespread release. The rest of the tracks were recorded in another shed (of another old teacher, oddly enough), and in London, where White moved afterwards and still lives and works as a guitar teacher in a primary school. Revenge was originally inspired by two primal, if conflicting, forces: the actual desire for revenge (on a whole city and, perhaps, on history), and the sadness over this desire. The song "Revenge" by Black Flag has resonated with White since he was a child. The way - in a 59 second song - Chavo (BF's 2nd singer) manages to scream about how they're "gonna get revenge" while also making regular reference to how much this is going to ruin his life ("don't tell me about tomorrow" etc.), all whirring and bleating through his cassette player on an old and decaying tape, created a poignant collision for White. You can hear this paradox throughout the album as sounds shift from the chaotic ambience of Christmas Eve to the building and frightening What Happened to the delicate melancholy of For To Become to the robotic love song Hoods Up. Tinkling pianos offer reprieve from black metal vocals (all by White himself) and drift into wistful guitars and lush electronics. There aren't many touchstones for an epic post-genre record like this one (M83 and Fuck Buttons might share some sensibilities).